You're assuming that no innovation is possible in this space. Besides, "every node" is not true of Bitcoin even today. Neither my desktop nor my mobile Bitcoin

You're assuming that no innovation is possible in this space. Besides, "every node" is not true of Bitcoin even today. Neither my desktop nor my mobile Bitcoin client save a complete history. Miners need history, but maybe there can be a different model of mining. I'm not a customer at all the credit card companies out there, only one. Maybe I could also be only be a customer of only one fixed "miner" in some future system? Possibly a new but fixed one I can pick per transaction, rather than today's essentially random assignment of who gets my fees? Yes, this wouldn't be Bitcoin anymore, but as I wrote above, I don't think Bitcoin is what we need anyway.